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Ellesmere Port's bid to build Ampera hits snags

By Rob Golding Motor Industry 09 October 2009 15:02 Prime minister Gordon Brown’s personal crusade to get Vauxhall's version of the Chevrolet Volt petrol-electric plug-in hybrid – the Ampera – built in Britain's Ellesmere Port factory in 2012 is a dream delayed, CAR can disclose today.News that the UK Astra plant is the best in Europe, that the Astra's Delta platform will underpin the Ampera, and that Volt will be on US sale from 2010 had been taken to mean that Vauxhall would be churning out the cars in the north west within three years.But the prospect of an electric car industry growing up around the run-down Merseyside manufacturing site is not imminent, CAR has learned.'No Ampera to be built in Europe before 2015'Vauxhall insiders have made it clear that the car to be known as the Vauxhall/Opel Ampera in Europe will be an import from the US for at least five years. One senior planner told us: 'The US will be the sole source of Amperas until at least 2015.'Bob Lutz, GM's former product supremo who recently came out of retirement as a PR, said that the low value of the dollar made the US an ideal site for the manufacturing of export cars. And with forecast sticker prices of the range-extender electric car standing at a scary £35,000+, every price saving is vital to its marketability.The European market also needs time to get its electricity recharge infrastructure in place before it is worth making cars onshore in volume, GM high-ups point out.

New Hyundai i30 Tourer on sale from £16,195

The new Hyundai i30 Tourer (Estate) will come in  four trim levels and a choice of two engines and cost from £16,195 when it goes on sale in July. Not only has Hyundai UK had their abacus out to come up with a price for the new i30 Tourer (it starts at £16,195) they’ve also had their box brownie out and snapped a few photos of a real live UK Hyundai i30 – including the interior. So now we know the new i30 Estate has an interior that looks just like the i30 Hatch and you don’t have to have a brown paint job.

The cars of Ayrton Senna

Twenty years ago today – 1 May 1994 – the world lost arguably the most talented Formula One driver ever: Ayrton Senna. Numbers alone don’t quite describe the genius the Brazilian driver showed at the wheel of all manner of cars throughout his career, finding time and speed where others simply couldn’t. So, on the 20th anniversary of Senna’s death in a tragic accident at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola – only a day after Roland Ratzenberger, a young Austrian driver and friend of Senna, also sadly lost his life, while qualifying – we’re celebrating the life of one of Formula One’s most charismatic drivers.